We followed the giant back to his camp, his feet shaking the earth with each step. Our progress was painstakingly slow as we crawled across the plateau leveling the hills with the plains. To the east, the land stretched for miles and miles of gold and brown grasses and shrubs.
By the time we reached his camp, my face was scratched and dirt mingled with the blood coating me. Every movement was a torturous battle of wills as I forced my limbs to obey me. The briarheart beat slower, more determined, and each time I pressed down to the ground to avoid being seen, its spines pressed deeper into my skin, stinging like fire. I ignored it, gritting my teeth and pushing onward. There was hope now. A way out.
The White Phial now seemed the only chance of purging this poison. If it was as powerful as Quintus made it out to be, perhaps I could cleanse my system. But, as I thought about it, I realized the heart would be used to repair it. A flicker of distress darted across my mind and I wondered what would happen to me if the heart was destroyed.
I pulled Derkeethus into a crouch behind a set of rocks and we peered at the giant, watching him make his way slowly through the camp. My breath still went in and out of me with a wheeze, and I was finding it harder to concentrate as we sat there. Derk, unable to do anything to push the poisonous will away from me, settled for resting his hand on my arm. It offered a little comfort, but not much else.
For a while hunkered behind the rocks, and bless Y'ffre, clouds shaded the sun and made us a little harder to see. The giant made his way towards the fire, and it was then I noticed a massive stone basin on the far side of the fire. A few butterflies were fluttering around the bowl, attracted to some kind of substance inside.
I nudged Derkeethus, who noticed the basin quickly. A look of greedy surprise crossed his features and he got up to sneak over there, but I reached out and gripped the back of his tunic.
"What? It's too dangerous for you to go," he hissed.
'I'm better at sneaking than you,' was what I had wanted to say. Instead, I hissed, "I want it. It's mine." And I pushed him behind the rock, setting off before he could stop me.
"Henny! No!" he whispered after me, staying put in any case. Two people sneaking around a giant's camp would attract too much attention.
My feet crunched almost soundlessly across the well-beaten dirt of the giant's camp, passing by a vat of mammoth cheese that stank with its fetid aroma. Flies buzzed around the hide pouch, and I kept well clear of the wriggling mass inside. I passed close to the fire, hoping the heated air would distort my moving form. Sweat broke on my brow and streaked my face before I broke clear of the heat, and crossed an empty space behind the giant.
It stood for a while, ruminating over something. A bone shrine to my left threatened to reveal me as my foot nudged a troll skull whose open jaw clacked shut. The giant grunted, and began to turn. I flattened myself between the low stones. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, he turned back and regarded a bathing mammoth below.
Carefully, I got up and tip-toed over to the basin. Inside was a fine powder the color of bleached bones. I recognized its similarity to the bone dust I used in various salves and reached in to scoop a sample into a vial. Both hands refused to move, and they hung there limply at my sides, the right one crushing the vial in its grip as if to break it. Magicka lashed at the enchanted glass, and I felt the enchantment wavering. Determined, I took the vial in my teeth and ripped it from my grip, dropping it into the powder. Both palms grasped my head, holding it in place, refusing to let me pick the vial back up with my mouth.
The sweat on my brow aided me and my own grasp couldn't cope with the dampness of my skin, and my head slipped forward, crashing into the powder. I grabbed the vial in my teeth and managed to get one hand to cooperate enough to stopper in and put it away. Powder filled the inside of my nose, and for a horrifying moment, I stood there rubbing it on a sleeve, trying to avoid the inevitable.
I could hold it in no more, and reeling on my feet, I sneezed, bone dust puffing into the air like smoke.
"Hrn?" the giant rumbled, spinning around with surprising dexterity to face me. Seeing the bone dust all over my face, he came to the correct set of conclusions and thundered after me. I ran for my life as he swung his club at the ground, shaking it ruthlessly.
"DERK! RUN!" I cried almost needlessly. The Argonian was already up on his feet and down the trail.
Poison burned through my blood, sending greater strength to my limbs, but the rush was too quick. My legs pushed off the ground awkwardly and I stumbled, tripping over a stone and laying sprawled in the dirt. The giant swung his club into the ground and I rolled out of the way as a rock the size of my skull crashed into the soil.
I heard Derkeethus stop running and turn to look. Perhaps he hadn't heard my light steps behind him. Perhaps he was drawn by the sound of the giant's club. Either way, he roared, his voice booming across the expanse and for a moment, I believed we had a dragon in our midst.
Scrambling for purchase, I tried to get to my feet, and evaded another swing of the club as the giant bellowed in frustrated fury.
"Gwaihen get out of here!" Derkeethus shouted over the commotion, stabbing the back of the massive being's calf with his pickaxe. The creature swayed as the current passed through him. I wanted to hesitate, to make sure he was all right, but my limbs burned and ran me away from the battle.
I turned my head to look, seeing dust rising in a cloud from the ground, obscuring the battle from my sight. Power was pulled through my body as Derk unleashed a shout that rent the ground and sent the giant stumbling in its traces. To my horror, I heard the Argonian cry as a sickening, wet crack echoed back to me.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I fought a wave of nausea as the briarheart continued to pump its will into my body. My muscles spasmed and convulsed as our wills opposed one another's, and I fell to my knees, clutching the dirt and waiting for the world to stop spinning. Then, with my body confused, I forced control back into my legs and got to my feet. Y'ffre, help me! I pleaded in my mind, and found I had a little more strength.
Not wanting to take anymore chances, I turned and fired an arrow at the giant, who was still near enough to be within range.
He turned, and seeing me screaming as I peppered his thick skin with irksome arrows, rumbled after me. I ran, occasionally sending an arrow back his way. Eventually, my arms refused to encourage the creature's fury, so I simply darted across the landscape in a terrified flight.
There was no way of knowing if Derkeethus was alive. The connection was shut down, and I couldn't hear him following us. For a moment, I entertained the possibility that he had perished and both feral jubilation and pain ripped through my heart. Though, I suspected he wasn't as I hadn't felt any power within me diminish with that blow. Even subtly, I felt a pull back towards the camp.
The giant chased me up a hill and over rocks as I made my way back towards the road, not really knowing what to do next. In the distance, I spotted a pair of lounging sabre cats and I made for them. They got to their feet and lazily regarded us, looking amused by this new version of cat and mouse.
That is, until I ran between them and careened down a steep embankment towards a spring that bubbled somewhere up ahead. The giant paused at the lip of the downward path, slowing almost to a stop. Not looking back, I heard the creature groan in pain as I leapt over the rocks, trying my best not to fall. Then someone was huffing and puffing behind me.
"Get down, quick!" a raspy, familiar voice growled, pulling me behind a boulder. Up above the sound of yowling sabre cats and an angry, confused giant mingled as the being's new foes tore at him ruthlessly.
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